Officials in Iraq have been struggling on Friday to identify more than a dozen bodies pulled from a deadly fire in a shopping centre, as investigations continue to determine the cause of the blaze.
An Iraqi medical official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the final death toll from Wednesday’s fire was 63, including 18 bodies that could not be identified due to the severity of the burns and would undergo DNA testing.
The Corniche Hypermarket centre in the town of Kut in Wasit province, a five-story building containing restaurants, shops and a supermarket, had opened just days before the blaze, which officials said broke out on the second floor in an area selling perfume and cosmetics.
Civil defence crews were able to rescue 45 people from the burning building. Officials said that most of those who died were trapped on the upper floors.
While the cause of the fire has not yet been determined, officials blamed a lack of safety standards in the building for the scale of the tragedy.
Provincial Governor Mohammed al-Miyahi stated that the building owner had failed to implement fire safety measures and had not obtained the required permits.
The provincial council of Wasit voted on Thursday to form committees to conduct building safety inspections and to suspend the directors of the Kut municipality and occupational safety until investigations into the fire are complete.
Al-Miyahi said on Thursday that legal complaints had been filed against the building owner and shopping centre owner, who could not be reached for comment.
The governor said at a press conference that the son of the centre owner and other members of his family were among the victims.
Poor building standards have often contributed to tragic fires in Iraq.
In July 2021, a blaze at a hospital in the city of Nasiriyah that killed between 60 and 92 people was determined to have been fuelled by highly flammable, low-cost type of "sandwich panel" cladding that is illegal in Iraq.
In 2023, more than 100 people died in a fire at a wedding hall in Hamdaniya, Nineveh province, after the ceiling panels above a pyrotechnic machine burst into flames.
